Hi jabailo (John),

No matter how much cellular operators slice and dice airtime plans, they need to maintain, if not increase, their ARPU. That's why they continue to push plans with unlimited voice, even though many people are using fewer minutes. The operators need to justify their prices.

T-Mobile will offer some inexpensive plans, but they hope to make up revenues with hardware sales, the more expensive plans (especially data services) and millions more subscribers than they have now.

The majority of tablets sold are with just WiFi because most people don't want to pay for cellular on tablets, even if its prepaid and month-to-month. Also, although voice minutes are decreasing, people still want their phones to have cellular because WiFi access just isn't sufficiently widespread.

As for tablets being used as a person's primary phone, that's an interesting situation as more "phablets are being released. How large a device will mainstream consumers accept as their primary phone?

I know you like WiMax, but Clearwire's future is LTE.

@Mitch,

"any company that simplifies mobile procurement has a real opportunity" 

You are right, especially if that will improve the consumer experience.

Well, LTE was designed for data and has the lowest Ping out there. So that's a possibility.

In what band is T-Mobile planning to deploy its LTE?

One problem I see with not subsidizing devices is that its aimed at customers that bring their devices from AT&T but the frequencies are not the same so the 3G won't work, etc. 

How is what T-Mobile doing different from Sprint?

Yes, any company that simplifies mobile procurement has a real opportunity. 

I am completely in agreement with you, Alan. If roaming is possible then connectivity between providers is possible for sure. Existing technology can help to reduce struggle but then providers need to find a way to justify the cost. 

Seems like "Mobile" carriers are doing everything possible to convince us that it takes a $75 dollar a month plan to have low bandwidth two way voice channels when more and more we do our communications with text messaging and social media applications.  I keep waiting for them to build the Un-Phone which is only a tablet or phablet with only broadband access to a pervasive network like Clear wimax.   Other than 911 emergency, as long as we can get the Ping time down, voice calls run on the Internet anyway.   And with social media, text, email even, we remove the Directory problem of finding people.

Hi Mitch Wagner,

It's interesting that you mention the Galaxy Note because people who get that phone/phablet probably are more techie/knowledgeable than most.

However, I won't argue about Americans being confused about cellular in general and operating systems specifically. It is confusing! Everything about cellular is confusing, and many Americans hate (or at least dislike) their cellular operator, especially when reading confusing/inaccuate bills and dealing with incompetent or inflexible customer support representatives.

That's why I see a big opportunity for T-Mobile, assuming it can deliver on its promises. If it can deliver -- offering better pricing, less confusing bills, excellent support, etc. -- it could influence the other cellular operators, especially AT&T, which is T-Mobile's main target. 

More importantly -- for Internet Evolution's readers -- T-Mobile's strategy, including eliminating handset subsidies, could affect how enterprises look at their hardware requirements. Of course, this also could greatly affect employees who bring their own devices.

Hi DrT,

Cellular operators sometimes want connectivity and sometimes don't. For example, it took years for cellular operators to agree to interconnect their SMS systems so users could transmit text messages to all operators. With interconnection, the operators realized they could generate more revenues.

Cellular operators certainly would like to keep subscribers within their "sphere," but they also realize that they can't -- and don't -- cover the entire U.S., so it's important to have roaming agreements with other operators, such as AT&T and T-Mobile, and Verizon and Sprint.

T-Mobile and Sprint need roaming agreements the most because their coverage isn't as extensive as the top two operators.

Of course, roaming on another operator's system often costs more for users.

Alan - I am absolutely not arguing that Americans are dopes. I do think they have other priorities than knowing what operating system their phone runs. 

My sense is they do know the kind of phone they're running. But they don't know that, say, a Samsung Galaxy Note and Droid are both running the same operating system. 

Agree, Alan. We should be able to provide connectivity between providers which have different systems. That would not be problem at all, the main reason is that this is not what providers want.